Coats to come out of retirement to challenge Bayh

posted at 12:15 pm on February 3, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

When Rep. Mike Pence officially dismissed the possibility of challenging Sen. Evan Bayh’s re-election bid, Democrats appeared to heave a sigh of relief. That relief will be short-lived. Dan Coats, who represented Indiana in the House and Senate for eighteen years, has decided to challenge his successor in this year’s election:

In an exclusive statement to Howey Politics Indiana, Coats explained, “Throughout my life, I have been drawn to serving my country, starting as a young man in the Army, and then as a member of the House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and most recently as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. After coming back from Germany I was content to return to the private sector. But like many Hoosiers, I have become increasingly alarmed and frustrated about the direction of our country and the failure by leaders in Washington to listen to those they were elected to represent. While Hoosier families have tightened their belts and sacrificed to make ends meet during these tough economic times, our elected officials in Washington continue to run up massive deficits, recklessly borrowing and spending record amounts of taxpayer money with no regard for the future generations of Americans who will inherit this staggering and ever-increasing debt.”

How does this impact the playing field? Politico reports that the GOP is delighted to see Coats return to electoral politics:

“Coats deciding to run is a product of the environment we’re in right now,” the GOP official said. “This is a great opportunity for us. We have a real player on the field that they weren’t expecting us to have.”

Coats isn’t the only former Congressman in the race. Former Rep. John Hostettler, part of the 1994 Contract with America class, has already thrown his hat in the ring, as has state Senator Marlin Stutzman. Neither of these two have won a statewide election before now. Coats won his own Senate term after first coming to the Senate by appointment to fill Dan Quayle’s seat after he won the 1988 election to become vice president. Coats retired after that term, allowing Bayh to beat Fred Helmke for the seat, but later served as Ambassador to Germany.

Unfortunately for Coats, he may be best remembered now for his attempt to help George Bush win confirmation to the Supreme Court for Harriet Miers. Coats was the sherpa forced into defending Miers’ lightweight resume by arguing that the court had perhaps become too intellectual. Since then, Coats has stayed out of the political limelight altogether, and may never have thought to run again until disaffection with Democrats reached its current fever pitch.

Still, the emergence of Coats makes Bayh’s re-election look less certain than it did after Pence’s demurral. It also indicates how strong the draw will be for strong Republicans to enter races in the midterms.

Update: Indiana, not Illinois. I’ve had Illinois on the brain today, sorry for the confusion.

Blowback

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Meh. Coats was a good guy while a Sentaor, but he became just another money-grubbing DC lobbyist after he left the Senate. It’s a little late for him to act like he is just another pissed-off Hoosier now. This reeks of opportunism on Coats’ part and desperation on the GOP’s part.

I also don’t like the term “comes out of retirement” in the headline. Coats hasn’t retired at all, he has been doing what all ex-politicians seem to do nowadays, cash in by becoming a lobbyist. He is still part of the Beltway establishment, just not as an official Senator.

Harriet was just one example of what people reject from the GOP. I am not sure there is still anger over her nomination so much as there is some serious levels of frustration with the GOP for pursuing similar forms of insanity such as allowing someone like Kirk to run as a Republican. NY 23 all over again.

While Coats is not Kirk, he does represent something this country does not need and that is a weak Republican. The nation is going to need Congressional members who love this country more than political power and who will be willing to take a chainsaw to the federal government. We are going to need people from every state who want to remove things such as the National Endowment for the Arts, ACORN, SEIU, and the Ad Council from receiving any federal monies if we want to save the country from financial destruction. I do not see Coats doing this.

Helmke attended Yale at the same time that former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton and was an acquaintance of each.

In May 2006 Helmke was named President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. In the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre in April 2007, Helmke made many network appearances on such programs as the CBS Evening News and ABC World News, fielding questions on gun control.

He hasn’t lived in Indiana for years. Democrats nailed Rick Santorum and Elizabeth Dole for the same thing. They know how to run this kind of campaign. They will portray Coats as a fatcat lobbyist who doesn’t even vote in Indiana anymore.

There has to be someone better who has real homegrown support and credibility who can take down Evan Bayh.

Doesn’t Indiana have any new blood out there looking to make a positive impact on the country?

UltimateBob on February 3, 2010 at 12:26 PM

I share a similar attitude. While I don’t remember what Coats’ voting record/ideology was…where are the younger candidates burning with the conservative fire? I’m all for the “coming out of retirement to help the cause”, but would much prefer a bold, NEW face. Not so much an anti-Coats stance as a pro-strong, new face stance for my state.

Doesn’t Indiana have a Scott Brown? Do we have to keep looking to the past for our candidates?

This reminds me of New Jersey a few years ago, when the Dems couldn’t find a candidate to run for US Senate, so they dug up the retired Frank Lautenberg and ran him. He was in his 70s at the time. He must be about 90 by now.

I get sick of seeing the same old farts screwing up the country from inside the beltway all the time, until they die. Since we don’t have term limits to keep the corruption in check, the best thing we can do is to look at new candidates whenever we have the chance.

Coats looks like a stern but kindly old great uncle, a typical white patriarchal patriot. Find someone of the caliber & youth of Brown or Palin who can infuse the race with excitement.
Coats looks like an old comfortable coat.

Dan Coats will be just fine. After all, Rasmussen Reports’ most recent Indiana polling (released January 25) showed that while Mike Pence led Bayh (47/44), Hostettler trailed Bayh (41/44) and Stutzman trailed Bayh even worse (33/45). And then Pence declined to run.

Is Dan Coats too old to make a comeback after retirement from the Senate? There is a precedent–Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) had retired from the Senate in 1994, then won election in 2002 after Robert Torricelli’s re-election campaign cratered on serious ethics problems.

Lautenberg was 78 years old when he returned to the Senate in 2002. Dan Coats is much younger–he will turn 67 this year.

Coats looks like a stern but kindly old great uncle, a typical white patriarchal patriot. Find someone of the caliber & youth of Brown or Palin who can infuse the race with excitement.
Coats looks like an old comfortable coat.

Unfortunately for Coats, he may be best remembered now for his attempt to help George Bush win confirmation to the Supreme Court for Harriet Miers. Coats was the sherpa forced into defending Miers’ lightweight resume by arguing that the court had perhaps become too intellectual. Since then, Coats has stayed out of the political limelight altogether, and may never have thought to run again until disaffection with Democrats reached its current fever pitch.

Coats also supported making Palin the VP for McCain and lobbied for her. Palin, like Miers went to a state university and was considered not top drawer by much of the elite. It is strange how it was okay for Coulter to trash Miers for her lack of an Ivy League education in much the same way Brooks would also disparage Palin.

I live in Indiana and I like Coats, I also like Hostettler. But I do think Coats has a better chance of winning.

Doesn’t Indiana have a Scott Brown? Do we have to keep looking to the past for our candidates?

This reminds me of New Jersey a few years ago, when the Dems couldn’t find a candidate to run for US Senate, so they dug up the retired Frank Lautenberg and ran him. He was in his 70s at the time. He must be about 90 by now.

I get sick of seeing the same old farts screwing up the country from inside the beltway all the time, until they die. Since we don’t have term limits to keep the corruption in check, the best thing we can do is to look at new candidates whenever we have the chance.

UltimateBob on February 3, 2010 at 1:10 PM

Oh come on, who is this supposed to be anyway? Right now there are no fewer than 3 new faces running in the primary in my district for the chance to run against Brad Ellsworth, the blue dog. But it is one thing to run a campaign in a congressional district, it is another for an unknown to run in a state wide election. Scott Brown had been in Mass politics for years btw.

Mad? No. But it was a stupid move on W.’s part. I don’t hang any of the stench on Coats though. He was just being a loyal GOPer.

rbj on February 3, 2010

True. Miers was totally George W. Bush’s pretzel to choke on. Coats may have questions to answer, but this isn’t one of them.

Extrafishy on February 3, 2010 at 1:55 PM

The truth is Coats actually did support Miers for the same reason he supported Palin, he liked and respected them both. For some reason it was okay for Frum to make fun of Miers being too common. I think Miers was treated badly by a lot of people on the right, she was given the same treatment Palin got and for a lot of the same reasons.

Sort of, more over how it began the decline of Bush’s very promising presidency than the actual move. More importantly though, I’m in the top fraction of a percent when it comes to following politics and I didn’t remember that. I seriously doubt it’ll be an issue.

Former congressman Chris Chocola (R., Ind.), president of the Club for Growth, tells National Review Online that former senator Dan Coats (R., Ind.) is a “very appealing candidate” and that he “would like to sell Coats’s candidacy to our members in coming days.”

Find someone of the caliber & youth of Brown or Palin who can infuse the race with excitement. Coats looks like an old comfortable coat. OmahaConservative on February 3, 2010 at 1:15 PM

Hoosiers are excited about Richard Behney, founder (with his wife Laura) of Indy Defenders of Liberty and IndianaTEA Party, and the Tax Day Rally that drew over 10,000 to the Indiana State Capitol. He is also an independent small businessman richardbehney.com . He is fiscally Conservative and Constitutionally-principled. Richard brings a breath of fresh air to stale old business-as-usual politics in Indiana. Plus he has hundreds of “boots on the ground” from the TEA Party.